WD MyCloud for Macs & PC

Hi, it's getting complicated managing my music across my two Macs and PC. I am looking at getting a Western Digital MyCloud 2TB storage for my home network. However, I'd like to ask first if anyone has any experience using both Mac and PC with these things.

I want to read/write access for music, videos, pictures, and psd files. Any help is appreciated.

In order to have read\write access from both your Mac and PC you'll either have to use a file system that both can read and write to, or, use a driver that will enable write access from your Mac.

Formatting the drive as Fat-32 will allow read and write access from both the Mac and PC. But it's not recommended because Fat-32 is a non journaling file system susceptible to errors and limited to a maximum single file size of ~4 GB. Using ExFat gets around the file size but you'll still have a system susceptible to errors because of its non journaling nature.

It's best to format the 2 TB drive as NTFS and purchase a driver from Paragon Software. Their driver - Paragon NTFS works well and is only $19.95.

chscag said:

In order to have read\write access from both your Mac and PC you'll either have to use a file system that both can read and write to, or, use a driver that will enable write access from your Mac.

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If the drive is shared over something like SMB (what my MyBook Live shares files through), isn't the underlying filesystem irrelevant? I thought, and I could be wrong, that the filesystem doesn't matter since you're talking over a protocol that deals with the file management. In other words, OS X just offloads the writes to the SMB server which does the grunt work.

Yes, the mycloud is a NAS drive. No need to worry about filesystems.

Sharing files that are in simple folder structures is a great idea when using a NAS. However, if you introduce file management tools like iTunes or iPhoto etc then things can get complicated really quick.

Only one iTunes instance can manage a library. I.e. only one can make changes to the library.

Unfortunately the idea of a shared library on a network share being managed by two or more iTunes instances isn't natively supported. You can use home sharing but that will only work when the machine that's the library owner is on.

There are a variety of third party tools that can sync library changes across machines but if iTunes is how your music is managed I suggest looking very carefully at the options.

Both replies above (Van and mrplow) are correct. However, the OP hasn't told us what kind of "home network" he has. Many users define a home network as having more than one computer in the house, not necessarily truly networked together.

First off, I didn't mean to leave the conversation hanging for quite a while and then resurrect the thread I've had some things to take care of over the last 30 days or so, taking away from my leisurely time. So my bad, guys -__ -

Anyway, I'm still as confused as before, especially with mentioning SMB and iTunes. I was under the impression that file system should not matter in this case. As for iTunes, I really have to have the managing computer on all the time? I don't think I understood this.

Also, I can connect all my PCs by ethernet to the router, if that helps and makes things function as a network. I'm willing to play around with the setup if it meant having network read/write access to my files.

You don't need your computer on all the time if your iTunes library is on the NAS - you only need it on if that computer is the one sharing the files.

You are right - the filesystem of the NAS is irrelevant so don't worry about that.

Your computers don't all have to be connected by ethernet but they all do have to be on the same network. So, you can have a mix of wired and wireless devices.

Alright, that sounds good to me.

A few other things I'd like to double-check on:
-This allows read/write access to any file type, other than music and videos? (Images, psd, doc, etc)
-And how do I protect an NAS from viruses and other things along those lines?

A NAS is nothing more than an external hard drive that works across the network instead of something like USB. So, anything that applies to an external HD applies to a NAS (for the most part - you configure a NAS through a web browser for sharing for example).

Hi!

I have a WD MyCloud 4TB drive installed at work. It was a bit tricky to get setup at first mostly due to firewall issues.

To get setup WD has management software that you download from their website. You create users that have their own storage area plus the drive has a public area. Since my goal was to use it for backup on several company computers I have it setup to backup any file that is added or changed immediately. I have not really opened it up for the others to access it although they can access their files and any public files through the icon in their tray.

Once I installed the utility on each computer - we are a very small office - 7 computers - the backup started immediately and went smoothly. I, as administrator, can see and access each person's files and restore them. They can see and restore theirs and any in the public area.

As I said we only use it for backup. Actually it is redundancy since I believe in more than one backup. We have two servers that we use for sharing documents that are backed up to other devices. I just needed something that did the individual computers.

Now as to files it holds.... anything you want. Documents, videos, etc. As to iTunes well we are not using it for backing up those files so I can't comment.

One suggestion, assign a static IP. The interface the administrator uses opens a browser and searches for the ip address.

Also they offer an app for remote access to your data.

Hopefully this will help.

Lisa

Thanks for the replies, guys. Gave me a much better idea of what to expect. So I've gotten a hold of a shiny new 2TB version of My Cloud, and yep it works nicely so far As for the software, it seems that I may not need it because I've been managing the drive and its folders through the web browser (intranet?).

Currently in the process of transferring files. Afterward, I'll use my WD 2TB external hard drive as My Cloud's backup. Once again, thanks for the information!

I also use a WD MyBook Live for some simple network connected storage and you're right - you more often than not don't need to use any special software. The only time you likely need to interact with the device specifically is through the web interface to set up shares and users. This is the joy of consumer NAS' - they look like regular HDs but just on the network.